Abstract
Physiological effects of a dog-assisted, stress management and communication training program conducted in a prison were investigated by assessing salivary cortisol concentrations of prison inmates before and after the sessions. The program was conducted with groups of inmates with psychiatric and/or developmental disorders. In the program, male inmates interacted with trained pet dogs and their volunteer handlers. Inmates evaluated their mood states before and after each session by using a questionnaire. Moreover, handlers evaluated the quality of the interaction with inmates after each session. Results indicated that the inmates’ cortisol values in most cases decreased following their participation in the sessions. The inmates who demonstrated stress reduction by decreasing cortisol values were diagnosed only psychiatric disorders, were aware of their mood improvement, and were evaluated by the handlers as having interacted well during the sessions. This indicated the validity of psychiatrists’ diagnoses, inmates’ self-evaluation, and handlers’ evaluation of inmates. Also, inmates who experienced a medium mood without mood changes had decreased cortisol values. It is suggested that these results are useful for predicting and selecting inmates who are expected to obtain effects by participating in the program. Moreover, it is suggested that providing feedback to inmates about changes in their salivary cortisol levels could help them better understand their psychophysical state, which could result in more effective stress management.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the staff of Harima Rehabilitation Program Center and the Ministry of Justice for their kind cooperation for conducting this program. The authors also wish to thank the participants for giving us consent to use data obtained in the study. The Biosignal Research Center at Gunma University kindly provided the cortisol antiserum. Moreover, the encouragement giving by late Dr. J. Yanai is deeply appreciated.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research association and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study was approved by Harima Rehabilitation Program Center and Japan Animal-Assisted Therapy Council.
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Data were collected from participants after obtaining their informed consent.
Funding
This study was funded by the Moritani Scholarship Foundation, the Mitsubishi Foundation, Career-Advance Team Funds of the Women’s Future Development Organization of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and KAKENHI Grant Numbers 22730431 and 25380735 from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, awarded to the first author.
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Koda, N., Watanabe, G., Miyaji, Y. et al. Effects of a Dog-Assisted Intervention Assessed by Salivary Cortisol Concentrations in Inmates of a Japanese Prison. Asian Criminology 11, 309–319 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-016-9232-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-016-9232-7